The rate of people getting dementia is increasing day by day. According to the information revealed in a study conducted in the country, the propensity of getting dementia is higher among the non-married people than the married ones.

No research over dementia was conducted in national level in the country prior to 2019. In 2019, a study was conducted by the joint effort of National Institute of Neuroscience and Hospital and International Center for Diarrhea Diseases and Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B). The study was accepted to be published in British journal ‘The Lancet.’

Among married people, the risk of getting dementia increased to 12.4 percent for unmarried people. The unmarried women have a higher risk of dementia than unmarried men, which is 6.5 %.

In addition, the study showed that the rate of dementia is higher among uneducated people than educated people. Those who have never attended school have a 10 percent incidence rate. But among those who have studied up to the fourth standard, the rate is 4.5 percent. And among those who passed elementary school or more educated, the rate of dementia was only 2.1 percent.

In 2020, the number of dementia patients in Bangladesh was over 11 lakh. By 2041, this number may exceed 24 lakh. Dementia is more common in people over the age of 60. The rate of this disease is 8.1 percent among people over sixty in Bangladesh. The treatment process of dementia costs more than Tk 3.5 billion in Bangladesh annually, and the cost per patient is about Tk 80,000.

The prevalence of dementia is higher in the northern districts of Bangladesh. In Rajshahi division, the rate of this disease is 14.9 percent. Its 11.9 percent in Rangpur, 7.8 percent in Khulna, 7.3 in Barisal, 6.7 in Chittagong, 4.5 in Sylhet and the lowest in Dhaka division was 2.9 percent.

Currently, the number of dementia patients in the world is 55 million. This number of dementia patients is more than 60 percent in middle and low income countries. It is estimated that in 2030, the number of dementia patients will reach more than 80 million worldwide and will exceed 150 million in 2050. In 1990, more than 10 lakh people died of dementia worldwide. And in 2016, that number increased to 24 lakh.

President of Neurology Department of National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital, Prof. Dr. Maliha Hakim said, 'Dementia is generally of two types. One is curable and the other is incurable. If the disease is diagnosed at an early stage, it is possible to keep patients well through treatment. However, care is more important than medicine for people suffering from this disease. That is why the cooperation of society and family is necessary. Apart from this, it is possible to reduce this disease if we build public awareness and get advice from experts at the right time.

​(The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on September 24 and rewritten in English by Lutful Hoque)